{"id":54,"date":"2017-01-15T16:45:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-15T16:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/ieom2018\/?page_id=54"},"modified":"2024-04-17T01:44:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T01:44:46","slug":"keynotes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/southafrica2024\/keynotes\/","title":{"rendered":"Keynote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keynote Speakers
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
\n

Tuesday, April 23, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

Conference Welcome and Opening:<\/strong> Tuesday, April 23<\/strong>, 2024, 8:30 – 8:45 am<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Dr Anthea Amadi-Echendu, UNISA: Conference chair<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Prof Ahad Ali: Executive Director of IEOM Society International<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \n

    Tuesday, April 23, 2024<\/strong>, 8:45 – 9:00 am<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Welcome by Tshwane Executive Mayor of Tshwane<\/p>\n

    Mr. Cilliers Brink<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
    \n

    Address: 9:00 – 9:30 am, Tuesday, April 23, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    OPENING KEYNOTE<\/p>\n

    Prof Lenkabula
    \n<\/strong>Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

    Introduction by Prof.\u00a0<\/strong>
    \nExecutive Dean of the College of Economic and Management Sciences<\/strong>
    \nUniversity of South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n

    9:30 – 10:00 am,<\/strong> Tuesday, April 23, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    KEYNOTE ADDRESS<\/strong><\/span>
    \n
    \nDr Menghestab Haile
    \nRegional Director for Southern Africa
    \nWorld Food Programme
    \n<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
    \n

    10:00 – 10:30 am,<\/strong> Tuesday, April 23, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    KEYNOTE ADDRESS<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

    Prof Rene Pellissier – Southern African Regional<\/strong><\/span>
    \nUniversities Association (SARUA)<\/strong><\/span>
    \nActivating mode 3 knowledge co-production<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
    \n

    Wednesday, April 24, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
    \n

    8:30 – 8:45 am, Wednesday, April 24, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    WELCOME + RECAP OF PREVIOUS DAY:<\/p>\n

    Facilitator:
    \nUniversity of<\/p>\n

    \n

    8:45 – 9:15 am, Wednesday, April 24, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    KEYNOTE ADDRESS<\/p>\n

    \"\"Portia Nkuna
    \nManaging Director <\/strong><\/span>
    \nA railway engineering and skills development organisation<\/span><\/strong>
    \nFazi Rail<\/span><\/strong>
    \nPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The application of renewable energy in the context of railway technology\u00a0evolution<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    Portia Nkuna is a seasoned railway professional with 18 years\u2019 experience in both technical and managerial areas. She is currently working towards enrolling for a MCom Degree specialising in Operations Management. She holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Management Practice from Henley Business School and a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Africa. She has obtained certificates in facilitation, assessment design and is an accredited assessor. Portia has authored and published numerous papers on railway technology management, renewable energy and is a co-author of training material on railway safety and signalling topics.<\/p>\n

    Portia is currently the Managing Director of a railway engineering and skills development organisation, Fazi Rail. She served as a Board Member of the Transport SETA and in the National Executive Committee of the National Society of Black Engineers, as its General Secretary. Prior to founding Fazi Rail, Portia worked at the Gautrain Management Agency as the Senior Manager for signalling and communication systems and a National Signalling Specialist at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, respectively. Her railway career took off in 2005 where she worked as an Engineering Technician and thereafter as a Training Specialist at Transnet Freight Rail. She also worked at Siemens as a Project Engineer.<\/p>\n

    \n

    9:15 – 9:45 am, Wednesday, April 24, 2024<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    KEYNOTE ADDRESS<\/p>\n

    \"\"Dr. Ahmed Deif<\/strong><\/span>
    \nAssociate Professor of Operation and Supply Chain Management<\/strong><\/span>
    \nOrfalea College of Business<\/strong><\/span>
    \nCalifornia Polytechnic State University<\/strong><\/span>
    \nSan Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

    Dr. Ahmed Deif is an Associate Professor of Operation and Supply Chain Management. Before joining Cal Poly, Dr. Deif was an assistant professor and the program director of the industrial and service engineering department at Nile University in Egypt from 2010-2013. Dr. Deif was also an assistant professor at the industrial systems engineering dept., at University of Regina in Canada from 2008-2010 where he still serves as an adjunct professor. He is also currently an adjunct associate professor at the Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Windsor in Canada where he served as a visiting scholar from 2013-2014.<\/p>\n

    His current research interests are in innovation in supply chain management, optimal manufacturing and service planning and control, lean and green manufacturing\/service systems and dynamic analysis of manufacturing systems. In addition, Dr. Deif conducts funded research on the impact of \u201clean gamification\u201d in STEM education. He has more than 65 publications in books, international journals and refereed conferences some of which have won best paper awards.<\/p>\n

    Dr. Deif has a diverse portfolio in his industrial experience ranging from automotive industry where he worked at the R&D center at Chrysler Canada to steel industry to electronic industry and finally assembly industry at various engineering and consultancy capacities. As a lean and six sigma certified expert, Dr. Deif helped various industries in improving their production performance and conducted various lean and six sigma trainings in US, Canada and the Middle East over the last 20 years. He also served as a consultant for the government in different vocational training and education task forces.<\/p>\n

    Dr. Deif is a senior member of SME and member of IIE, APICS, ATMAE and IEOM organizations. He served on the scientific committee of several international conferences as well as a reviewer for many international manufacturing journals including Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Journal of Cleaner Production, Intl. Journal of Production Research and Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology.<\/p>\n

    Dr. Deif is a fellow faculty of the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at Cal Poly as well as an active member of central coast lean (CCL) center at Orfalea College of Business. He has taught in different international programs all over the world including Semester at Sea (SAS), USAC as well as Cal Poly Global Programs.<\/p>\n

    Education<\/p>\n

      \n
    • BS Mechanical Engineering (1999), American University in Cairo, Egypt<\/li>\n
    • A.Sc. Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering (2003), University of Windsor, ON, Canada<\/li>\n
    • D. Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering (2006), University of Windsor, ON, Canada<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n

      Thursday, April 25, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
      \n

      8:30 – 8:50 am, Thursday, April 25, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

      WELCOME + RECAP OF PREVIOUS DAY:<\/p>\n

      Facilitator:
      \nCompany<\/p>\n

      \n

      8:50 – 9:20 am, Thursday, April 25, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

      KEYNOTE ADDRESS<\/p>\n

      \n

      \"\"Dr. James J. Cochran<\/strong><\/span>
      \nProfessor of Applied Statistics and the Mike and Kathy Mouron Chair
      \n<\/span>Culverhouse College of Business
      \n<\/span>The University of Alabama
      \n<\/span>Tuscaloosa, AL, USA<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

      James J. Cochran is professor of statistics and the Mike & Kathy Mouron Research Chair with the University of Alabama\u2019s Culverhouse College. He is also a Research Associate with the Alabama Transportation Institute. He has been a Visiting Scholar with Stanford University, University of South Africa, Universidad de Talca, P\u00f4le Universitaire L\u00e9onard De Vinci, University of Limpopo, University of Namibia, and University College London.<\/p>\n

      Dr. Cochran\u2019s research focuses on problems at the interface of statistics and operations research, He has published eighteen book chapters, over fifty research articles, and almost 100 other articles. He has taught a wide range of statistics and operations courses from the introductory undergraduate level through PhD seminars in both statistics and operations research, and he is coauthor of eight textbooks in statistics, operations research, analytics, and data visualization. He has served on the editorial boards for eighteen journals and as Editor-in-Chief of INFORMS Transactions on Education<\/em> from 2007-2012.<\/p>\n

      Dr. Cochran is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and the Management Sciences<\/em>, Wiley Series in Operations Research and Management Science<\/em>, Oxford Anthology of Statistics in Sports<\/em> series, and INFORMS Analytics Body of Knowledge<\/em>. He has served as a consultant to a wide variety of corporations, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations around the world.<\/p>\n

      Dr. Cochran established an international teaching effectiveness colloquium series and has organized these events in Uruguay, South Africa, Colombia, India, Tanzania, Argentina, Kenya, Nepal, Cameroon, Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, Fiji, Mongolia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Grenada, and Sri Lanka. He was a founding co-chair of Statistics without Borders and a founding committee member for the INFORMS Pro Bono Analytics initiative. He has delivered keynote addresses to conferences in twenty-seven nations.<\/p>\n

      Dr. Cochran has received the INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of OR\/MS Practice, Mu Sigma Rho Statistical Education Award, Waller Distinguished Teaching Career Award, ASQ\u2019s William G. Hunter Award, and Karl E. Peace Award for outstanding statistical contributions for the betterment of society. He is a three-time finalist for the Innovative Applications in Analytics Award and a finalist for the Melbourne Business School Practice Prize for Achievement in Business Analytics. He is also a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a Fellow of INFORMS, and he has received both the American Statistical Association\u2019s Founders Award and the INFORMS President\u2019s Award.<\/p>\n

      \n

      9:20 – 9:50 am, Thursday, April 25, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

      KEYNOTE ADDRESS<\/p>\n

      \"\"Dr. Ertunga C. Ozelkan
      \n<\/b>Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering
      \n<\/strong><\/span>Department of Systems Engineering & Engineering Management<\/strong>
      \nAssociate Director of the Center for Lean Logistics and Engineered Systems <\/strong>
      \nUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte<\/strong>
      \nUSA<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

      Dr. Ertunga C. Ozelkan <\/strong>is a Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and the Associate Director of the Center for Lean Logistics and Engineered Systems at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is also the President and Founder of Operational Excellence Professionals, LLC, which provides Lean Six Sigma and continuous productivity improvement solutions to the industry. Before joining academia, Dr. Ozelkan worked for i2 Technologies, a leading supply chain software vendor and for Tefen USA, a systems design and industrial engineering consulting firm. Dr. Ozelkan holds a Ph.D. degree in Systems and Industrial Engineering from the University of Arizona. He teaches courses on production control systems, lean six sigma practice and management, lean supply networks, decision and risk analysis, designed experimentation, and systems design and optimization. His current research interests include flexible production systems planning and optimization, and optimal group purchasing decisions in supply chains. Dr. Ozelkan has been actively serving in leading roles in several national and international professional societies over the years including the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineer\u2019s (IISE), American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM), the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). He has published over 90 articles in international journals and conferences, and he has received multiple awards, including the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineer\u2019s (IISE\u2019s) Operational Excellence Division\u2019s (former Lean Division) excellence in teaching award, the Merl Baker Award for outstanding service and contribution from the Engineering Management Division of the ASEE and the Meritorious Service Award from the ASEM.<\/p>\n

      Keynote Title: How does\/can AI play a Role in Supply Chains?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \u00a0<\/strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not new but has found many applications in recent years with the availability of data, advanced in computing power and machine learning methodologies. More and more AI is being utilized by large corporations for managing various processes in their supply chains. Supply chain management involves Strategic\/Design, Tactical\/Planning and Operational\/Execution related decisions related to Create, Source, Make, Move, Market, Sell, and Return processes. So how does AI fit in to these wide range of processes? This talk will provide an overview of the current role of AI, potential applications, and the outlook to manage supply chains.<\/p>\n

      \n

      9:50 – 10:20 am, Thursday, April 25, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

      KEYNOTE ADDRESS<\/p>\n

      \"\"Thuli N. Khumalo<\/strong><\/span>
      \nExecutive Manager<\/strong><\/span>
      \nCity of Johannesburg<\/strong><\/span>
      \nGauteng, South Africa<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

      Dr Khumalo is the Executive Manager, Council for Geoscience. She had held various positions previously, including being the Chief Operations Officer of the Presidential Climate Commission, having joined the PCC in its infancy stage in 2021.<\/p>\n

      Dr Khumalo is a sustainability expert and formerly a Deputy Director-General responsible for Climate Change and Air Quality in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE). Before then, she served as the Chief Director: Air Quality Management and National Air Quality Officer for eight (8) years. She joined the Department of Environmental Affairs in 2009 as Director: Atmospheric Policy, Regulation and Planning, and had previously been a Senior Environmental Scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).<\/p>\n

      She holds a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of the Witwatersrand and has recently completed a Master of Philosophy in Corporate Strategy from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, among others. Dr Khumalo has considerable experience in organizational leadership and team management; strategy development and implementation; stakeholder management and co- ordination; as well as policy development and implementation.<\/p>\n

      \n

      10:20 – 10:50 am, Thursday, April 25, 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

      KEYNOTE ADDRESS<\/p>\n

      Talifhani Banks<\/strong><\/span>
      \nFounder of Spaza Eats<\/strong><\/span>
      \nCity of Cape Town<\/strong><\/span>
      \nWestern Cape, South Africa<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

      Meet Tali)ani Banks, the visionary founder and Group CEO of AnalyicsX. A technology conglomerate transforming industries through data & software innovations. With a background in Statistics and Econometrics from the University of Pretoria, Talifani Banks honed his expertise at leading
      \ncorporations like Massmart and Pick n Pay before launching his entrepreneurial journey.
      \nHis ventures include the multi-award-winning Analytics Advertising and the sought-after Spaza Eats.
      \nKnown for pioneering the application of the TIPS framework in service delivery, Talifani has earned accolades such as Top Entrepreneur 2022, Best Tech CEO in Africa, and BRICS Entrepreneur
      \nof the Year 2022. Join us as he shares insights from his remarkable career and the
      \nfuture of tech-driven innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Keynote Speakers Tuesday, April 23, 2024 Conference Welcome and Opening: Tuesday, April 23, 2024, 8:30 – 8:45 am Dr Anthea Amadi-Echendu, UNISA: Conference chair Prof Ahad Ali: Executive Director of IEOM Society International Tuesday, April 23, 2024, 8:45 – 9:00 am Welcome by Tshwane Executive Mayor of Tshwane Mr. Cilliers Brink Address: 9:00 – 9:30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/southafrica2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/southafrica2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/southafrica2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/southafrica2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/southafrica2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":118,"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/southafrica2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2269,"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/southafrica2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions\/2269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/southafrica2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}